Projects, Garden Update

You may recall from a previous post that we had a few bad pickets in the gate, which we've replaced with new ones finally:

The new neighbors across the street also had a bigger project done: they cut down a big tree. We're sad about this, as it was a lovely lovely lovely old tree. But apparently its roots was growing into their house and had collapsed one of their foundation walls. Yikes!
In (much) smaller projects, I did a bit of sewing this week, too. Last weekend, when we went to the artist studios, I was itching to do some crafting, so I took a bit of time to make this little bag:


The pocket there I made from a wool felt kit that Rose gave me (thanks, Rose!). The fabric is actually a (clean) canvas drop cloth (from the hardware store) that I had bought for some other long-ago and forgotten project. There's lots more of the canvas, so I might need to make some more bags.

Things in the garden get better every day. We've gone from this:

To this:
Lucy will have to go pick the ripe ones today.

The blueberries should be ready soon, too:
Last year's blueberries were a big hit with Lucy, so it's exciting to see the bountiful crop forming already. We're also hoping to get some raspberry bushes to plant in the backyard.

That's all for today. We're hoping to go to Lowell Riverfest for a bit tomorrow, if the weather holds out.

Jake has headed out for the weekend to do the Green Mountain Double Century. Here's the blurb the race organizer has put out:

205 miles, 80% dirt, 25,000 feet of climbing.

Yup. He's crazy.

Adventures of the Amateur Archivist, Episode 3

Jake is off somewhere in Connecticut for the day, doing an insane bike ride. To pass the time during Lucy's nap, I'm here scanning stuff from the archive and filling up the recycling bin with the detritus of my kindergarden through eighth grade years.

I am about to trash in its entirety my "eighth grade journal." This is NOT the eighth grade journal full of dark poetry; rather, this is the journal that my 8th grade teacher required that we keep and actually read. So I think "journal" isn't quite the right word for it. It's filled with entries about what I was reading and what was going on at school and such. What I find amazing about this is that my teacher responded to EVERY entry in there. No matter how stupid it was. I cannot imagine the time it took for her to read all of this -- and not just mine, but everyone in my class! As I read it now, I am mostly embarrassed; I am seriously obsessively focused on every quiz, test, and report, and constantly worried about my grades. There's also an entry revealing my excitement about the haunted house I'm constructing in the attic of our house, and my excitement that I got a gift certificate to the local office supply store (woo hoo! markers!). Other than that, I worry about band (yes, I was in the marching band), talk about my science fair project. On the latter, I am upset because I did well enough in the first one to go on to the next level and "it's going to be a lot of work to collect more rain." Priceless. (the project was on acid rain.)

Anyway, the only page that was really worth scanning was the drawing my Japanese friend, Kimiko made, shown here:

Check out our over-sized 80s shirts. And hair. Nice. I haven't seen most of these people in many years; I wonder where they are now and what they would think if they stumbled upon this.

I know you're all wondering how I can stand the excitement of spending my Saturday sifting through my archives. The real excitement is tomorrow: we're going to see They Might Be Giants! I'm very excited. This will be Lucy's second time....wait, actually, this will be everyone's second time seeing them. As I type this, I am also listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (fairly typical Saturday activity) and the guests are....the guys from TMBG. They are doing the "Not My Job" quiz, which involves them answering questions about something outside their area of expertise. So since they are "They Might Be Giants," they are being asked questions about Andre the Giant. Brilliant.

So that's today's update. We'll try to get pix of Lucy at the show, but it will be hard to beat this one from the last time.

New Toys

Auntie Paula brought Carter a couple of new dog toys; he is quite smitten with his toy pheasant. There's a bird dog for you.



Jake is the proud new owner of a Brompton folding bike. It's pretty rad (I'm sure he'll elaborate here).

JB here: The Brompton is indeed pretty rad. It takes me about 30 seconds to fold or unfold it, though I expect to get faster with practice. I've just started working two days a week for a bike company, doing some database programming. It's 25-30 miles away, which is a tad too long for bike commuting (at least in the winter). But with the Brompton I can ride two miles to the train station, fold the bike, take the train south to West Medford, unfold the bike, and ride six miles to work.

And here's me unfolding the bike (also my first appearance on YouTube):


If you want to get sucked down a YouTube® vortex, here's a beginning: Somebody made an Brompton with an electric motor for a front hub -- amazing!



And then some kid from Zimbabwe doing donuts on a bike. Why? I don't know, but I like it.